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“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go” Joshua 1:9

December 23, 2012

Travel Diary: Vienna Trip

Day One, Berlin.

As I am writing this a day after my visit to Berlin, I may not remember everything as detailed as yesterday. The thing was, though, that we were all way too tired yesterday to write anything, besides a few postcards, since we were on two flights in the morning, and in the arvo, respectively. I will refer to yesterday as today, as it makes it easier to write:) So basically my whole family in Finland all are going on this trip. My mother, father and brother, grandmother, grandfather and myself.

This morning we woke up before dawn, at 4am. Not too good, since my sleeping habits have been badly as of late. A van picked us up at our apartment, and we arrived at the airport around 6am. Fortunately we had a teeny bit of time for brekky, since on the flight we were only given a muffin and some orange juice. So, we departed from Finland on our way to Berlin at around 7am, and arrived in Berlin at approx. 8am Berlin time. We lost an hour:)

The minute we touched down in Berlin; through the overhead speaker the flight attendent, or whoever, spoke some German and then what I thought was English. I think they said something like "Welcome to Berlin, the temperature is around -4 degrees, and the time here is 8:15". It was all combined together in a string of words that was virtually impossible to understand.So I am not certain what he actually did say, I asked later if anyone else did, and they didn't either ;p I found that quite funny:)

In Berlin, we were welcomed by some attendents handing out christmas chocolates, and were then plunged outside into the cold weather without a moments notice. There was no connecting platform to the airport. Everyone got out of the plane, and literally ran across to a bus which then transported us to the airport. The airport was really only a few metres away, but I guess it would have been hard to know where the airport wa concerning the aircraft, and with the weather as it was, the bus was probably a clever idea:) Although they could have warned us ;p

There was a bus that we heard some people talking about that takes you right into the city, and we decided to get a day ticket which would allow us to travel throughout Berlin all day till 4pm. But, my gosh, it is a different experience going on a bus there than anwhere else I have ever been. Somehow, everyone squashes tightly in together and manages to fit in the bus. It is quite funny:) We were watching some people trying impossibly to bring their luggage with them into an already full bus! Unmistakably, they did not fit :P

We then went to some Christmas markets that we found at one of the stops that we were told to get off at. Most of the stalls were full of lollies, and chocolates, and in the center we found a merry-round. Pappa wanted to get on, although we found that it was closed:(

The temperature was fresh, and so we had to all look for some nice place to go inside. So, we decided to walk to the Berlin Dome, which was not that far from the markets. This building is a huge dome, where you can find the most spectacular church, tomb stones, and panarama of Berlin city! Truly awesome!

To complete the gorgeous view that we saw at the top of the dome, it started snowing! That made everything so much prettier:) We walked around the streets, looking into various museums, and monuments that we saw aroound the place. It was quite cool, cause there was water in between and stuff. It reminded me abit of Venice, although I have never actually been there! We were getting a tad hungry y this time, and came across a place for lunch, which was actually a museum:)

We dropped in to have a bite, then followed on our self-made tour to see the rest of Berlin. Well, what we could see in the remaining 1 hour we had set ourselves:) The grandparents went back to the airport, while we went to the Berlin wall! Part of it, anyway:))))

Although we made it back to the airport in good time, and had time to eat something before the flight to Vienna, we still found ourselves with a mass of time to waste! We were all had it, so the time went terribly quickly. And we all slept like a log:)